A friend who's system I maintain has 3 door sensors. They are Visonic MCT-340 E. One of them seems to have excessive battery drain. 2 of the 3 will last several months. The other one goes thru a battery in about a month. I replaced that one thinking it was a bad sensor. Still same problem with the new one. What's puzzling is the location is the closest one to the hub. It is on a door going to a garage, whereas the other 2 are doors going outside.
Any ideas on what might be causing this?
Can't talk to any specifics for the devices you are using, but from what I've read more generally, the path they take on the mesh or the strength of the connection can impact battery drain, along with firmware. This is based more on conversations around Samsung Zigbee devices, but could imagine the same issues could play out in other devices.
@j715 - To this point, you could try placing a Zigbee outlet near the problem door that can act as a repeater and see if that extends the battery life.
So even tho it is only about 5 ft from the hub, other side of wall, it could be taking a round about way to get to the hub?
Depending on what is in the wall, yes.
It would be an interior wall and there are probably at least 2 walls between the other units and the hub. I'll have to check, but I believe there is a Zigbee plug almost right next to the door in question.
Is there anyway on Zigbee to force a mesh update similar to Zwave?
Normally turning it off for half an hour will make devices scramble for a new path in life....
Turn the hub off for 1/2 hour?
That's probably the easiest option, but I expect disabling the Zigbee radio would do it...
20 mins might actually be enough...
He's about 3 hours away from me. I am going up there next week to do some other work for him, so may try that at that time.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Problem with Zigbee is it’s in the 2.4 spectrum which is very congested. All it takes is for a Wifi AP to destroy your mesh whether the HE owner or a nearby neighbor. You might also check the Zigbee channel. I have been using channel 20 for the last 4.5 years on HE since it’s in between Wifi channels.
Just like fixing IP Addresses, always good to fix your Wi-Fi channel(s) as well...
To get back to this. We replaced the Zigbee sensor with a Z-wave sensor. That sensor doesn't seem to want to work at all when it's mounted on the door. It is very flaky as to open/closed status. We can open the door and take another magnet and hold up to the unit and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
And within an hour the battery lost 10%.
So there is something interfering, but I can't figure out what. Any thoughts on what to look for? The door is metal, but his other doors are metal and they work fine. I can't find anything close to the door that might be the problem.
Just looking for any suggestions.
Update to this. Toke sensor off door. Held it about a foot from the door. Works fine. But when mounted on door it’s very flaky as to operation. And the battery is draining fast.
What can cause this? Could there be something weird with the metal in the door?
Is the door magnetized?
Just checked that. Doesn’t appear to be.
Here is some information you may want to look at.
Good info. I’m not there anymore but will try those suggestions as soon as I can.
Thanks.
I use one of these on my metal door, it’s not the best thing in world, but it works.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KQDIUAW
Download the Hubitat app
